Is the NFL's Implosion Worth Noting?

Absolutely.  The NFL has become such an iconic brand in America, and has become so popular, it is representative of us as a nation.  The NFL is reflective of us because it has woven itself into the fabric of our national psyche.  We have grown to love it during its rise to its current status.  The NFL has become a cultural mirror, upon which we can evaluate ourselves, if we dare.  It is because of this evaluation and analysis of this institution that I have become critical of it.  I have spent a good amount of time sharing my opinion about the NFL rather than watching it this season. And while I have not yet called for a NATIONAL BOYCOTT OF THE SUPERBOWL, the key word there being "yet", I am considering doing so.

Roger Goodell just signed another contract extension.  He has already made over $200 million in his current position and the new contract will double that amount.  He has become filthy rich and we the fans are the enablers, because we have made the men who pay Roger's salary filthy rich.  Good for Roger.  Roger is paid by the team owners, indirectly by our dime, because we are the ones who watch the games on TV and buy the advertiser's products.  We the fans are the ones who used to fill the stadiums (just look at the photos) every Sunday, Monday and Thursday. We the fans are the ones who buy our teams sweatshirts, hats and other memorabilia.  When the NFL finally crumbles, we will be there to witness it.  At least Roger will be comfortable enough financially to retire.

The implosion of the NFL is worth noting because the leadership is too self absorbed to be self aware of how it fits into our society.  It has led from behind on the "Anthem Kneeling" issue from the beginning.  It has tried to stop the leaks in the dam with one incorrect public relations stunt after another, rather than recognizing and addressing the real problem.  The NFL  has pissed off about half of its loyal fan base and can't figure out why everyone is abandoning them.  How can people making so much money act so stupidly?  This is reflective of our nation's leaders.  They are too self absorbed to be self aware.  The Establishment in Washington is too entrenched in its own delusions to recognize why Donald Trump is our new President.  It too will remain blissfully ignorant when Trump wins a second election in 2020.  The NFL's Apocalypse is upon us, and our nation's is not far behind.

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory in Historic Petersburg

The most beautiful church exterior my eyes have ever beheld: Trinity United Methodist Church on the 100 block of South Sycamore in Downtown Petersburg, Virginia.  While beautiful on a sunny day, the large gray and sandstone colored blocks really pop on an overcast day because the unique individual color of each block is more distinguishable to the passer by, via the uniform ultra violet rays filtered through the clouds.  I have no idea what the interior looks like, but may visit this place one Sunday soon.  I'll keep you posted.  Also, research is ongoing on  Byrne St. Baptist Church (currently active as Second Baptist Church), from 1866 to 1876.  An update is forthcoming on that as well.

More Deerfield Massacre

What Rev. John Williams endured is an incredible story.  Perhaps the only two families who suffered more loss during the Deerfield Massacre were my ancestors, The French family and the Catlin Family, who lived directly across the street from the church where Rev. Williams preached.  The Catlin and French families lost 14 members through murder or kidnapping and enslavement as a result of the events that transpired on February 29, 1704.  I would recommend this book for any person interested in American or Canadian history.  I got this used copy in very good condition through Amazon for about $8. One interesting note--Rev. Williams was the uncle of Jonathan Edwards, the minister who is credited as  being one of the driving forces behind The Great Awakening--a revival movement primarily begun by the Puritans and Reformed Christian denominations.  At that time, our Baptist and Methodist denominations were not yet significant enough numerically to have much of an impact.  Their influence came later during The Second Great Awakening, after they had grown larger than the Puritans of New England and the Anglicans of the Southeast. If the book cover blurb below seems interesting to you, I am certain that you will enjoy the book as much as I did.

Family Tree Photos--My Great Grandfather

Rev. James Edward Hutson (front left) in his later years

Rev. James Edward Hutson as he appeared as pastor of Byrne St. Baptist Church of Petersburg, Virginia, between 1866 and 1876

What's in a Name?

I  have to say that discovering genealogy and researching my family tree has been the biggest adventure in my life so far.  To some that may seem like I have lived a very sheltered life: to others it may mean that I have no life at all and that at 62 years of age, I may need to find one before it's too late.  Both may be true, but  I don't always know what is going to blow my skirt up.  I know that I can count on a few simple things--a pretty girl always turns my head, I enjoy a good football game, nothing beats a good book and I am never too old to learn how to make something delicious.

For example, I just got 8 new books on the Deerfield Massacre, two on Jamestown and one on the history of 17th Century, Eastern Shore, Virginia.  Life is rich.  My OCD nature requires that I share every single detail that I learn.  My wife can't stand hearing the same stories over and over again, but my captive audiences (Uber customers) have no choice but to endure the history lesson of the day. It is a large component of why my job satisfaction is so high for such low wages.

I am still exploring several areas of American and Canadian history concurrently but it is genealogy that brought all of the areas to the forefront.  Until a few weeks ago, I never knew of  any English ancestors from New England, except for one from Upstate New York.  However, because of family tree research, I have discovered two ancestors who fought for the Union and 14 relatives who were either murdered, or kidnapped and enslaved by the French and Indians. Now how many white boys do you know that can honestly say that they have family members who were lynched or slaves?  Too much fun, right?  I will share some of the stories as time permits in the future, but recently, what has jumped out at me has been a variety of cool first names that I  have discovered among my grandparents. To avoid rambling, here is the short list: Freedom (a mother and a daughter), Patience, Experience, Mercy and Israel.  You just gotta love those New England Puritans...almost every given name is a character from a Morality Play.

More Uber Notes

So on Thurs. I pick up a guy at a hotel in Petersburg and take him to a Family Medical Practice in Sutherland, Dinwiddie Co.  It's so far out, he is not sure he can get an Uber ride later.  I tell him to just call me and I'll help him out.  When I pick him up at the end of his work day, it turns out that he is going back to Charlottesville, Va.  He just finished his last day of work.  He is a third year medical student at U of Va. He shares that the job is part of his medical training.  He is travelling light for having been in the area for over a month. He has one small box of food, one small bag of clothes, and his bike, which we throw in the back of my truck. On the ride to his home, he shares his passion for bike riding and tells me he rides his bike from his hotel in Petersburg to Sutherland every day.  Wow.  Then he tells me of a long bike trip he took.  He says something about St. Louis and then Oregon.  Hold on a minute.  You rode your bike to Oregon?  "Yep".  I said, "You ought to write a book".  He said, "I did".  He gave me the copy pictured above but forgot to sign it.

"That's Just the Way It Is"

So I pick up a guy at the airport this past Wed.  He lives close to U of R, so it's about a 25 minute ride.  We had an easy rapport and good conversation.  We talk basketball, history, and food from my very limited repertoire.  I ask him why he has to travel so much and he tells me it goes with the territory--a large component of his job.  He was returning from Florida that afternoon and would be leaving Richmond again the following morning.  I ask him, "What exactly do you do?".  He replies that he is a sound engineer. You guessed it.  He's the sound engineer for Bruce Hornsby. I tell him that I am a big fan and have two of his albums (still a vinyl addict).  I start to sing my favorite Bruce Hornsby basketball song, "Take Me to the Old Playground".  He tells me that the band hasn't performed that one in concert in forever, but promises me that he will tell Bruce that his Uber driver sang that song for him.  You're welcome, Minneapolis. You probably got to hear that song Friday night because of me.

Grandma got kilt by some injuns

Until yesterday, I don't think I ever heard of the Deerfield Massacre.  I can't recall it from any history class I have ever  taken.  During a session of digging up old bones, I came across a large family of Englishmen deep in my family tree from the Deerfield Settlement in Massachusetts in 1704.  What jumped out at me was that of the 7th and 8th generation great grandparents and their kin, several had died on the same day, February 29,1704, which made me mighty curious.  It didn't take long to discover that most of my ancestors there were either killed or kidnapped during that historic event in Queen Anne's War.  Curiously enough, I descend from these English settlers through a genealogy line going back though multiple layers of my father's French Canadian roots because of those who were kidnapped and assimilated into the French culture during the early days of Montreal's history. Wikipedia has a good synoptic account of this raid and I also found a good narrative account in the archives of American Heritage, that explores the first-hand perspective of Rev. John Williams, who survived the attack. In a nutshell, over 50 were murdered, about half being children, and over 100 were kidnapped and taken as hostages back to Montreal, where they were divided up as slaves by the victorious Frenchmen and their Native American allies.Some escaped their captivity (my great grandfather Thomas French) and made it back to Massachusetts, some assimilated with the French and others assimilated into the tribes of the Abanaki and Iroquoi Indians. RIP Thomas French, who escaped, his wife, Marie Catherine Catlin, who was murdered and her parents, RIP, John Catlin and Mary Baldwin, who were murdered. Additionally, Marthe Madeleine French, daughter of Thomas and Marie Catherine Catlin was kidnapped and assimilated into the French culture, eventually marrying my 6th generation great grandfather, Jacques Roy (Roi). Can you imagine having to endure watching your children being murdered right in front of you and then being forced to travel through three feet of snow, walking from Massachusetts to Montreal in the dead of winter?

The Fall of Richmond

Today is the day. We celebrate the life of Thomas Jefferson; we commemorate the fall of Richmod

Richmond in the American Civil War - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_in_the_American_Civil_Warnd.

It's Getting To Be That Time Of Year

Found an old baseball collage.  If parents want this kind of thing, I can still do it but it won't be as cheap as it used to be.

Still Worth Fighting For

Famous painting by muralist, John Steuart Curry

This painting has a great back story.  For now, who among my history buff friends on this page,or my Facebook friends know what rock band used this mural for the artwork on their debut album cover in the 1970's?

The long quote below comes directly from the pages of the Kansas State Historical Society, and therein lies the hint.

"Curry’s interpretation of John Brown and the antislavery movement in Kansas Territory before the Civil War, is considered one of his best murals. Rich in symbolism, the painting depicts John Brown as an important, albeit fanatic man who would kill for his beliefs. In 1859 Brown was hanged for treason after leading a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.


The tornado and prairie fires represent the storms of war that gathered and the fires of war that swept the land. The men on either side of Brown symbolize the brother against brother conflict of the Civil War. The two dead men at his feet represent the more than one million soldiers and civilians who were either killed or wounded during the war. Curry’s critics disliked his color scheme and the overall menacing effect of the mural."

Also worth noting are the sentiments of the painter as expressed with John Brown's left leg and foot.  Notice that the foot rests on the head of the slain Confederate soldier, not the Union soldier.

Parrot Talk

     As much as I have enjoyed watching the Academy Awards in the past, I intentionally ignored them last night and went to be early.  I am beat down and tired, even worn thin.  All these people, the celebrities and celebrity wannabes in Holywood (intentional spelling) want to look down their noses and preach at me.  They want to tell me who I am, what I am, and what they think I should be.  From here it looks like they think they are pretty smart because they throw a lot of $3 words around.

     Now this is the part I hope someone will shart with Dennis Prager becuse I spend 3 hours a day with him while I am driving for Uber, and I know he would find this funny.  Even though I know almost nothing about parrots, I am confident that I could teach one to say 4 buzzwords.  I believe a parrot could be taught to say "misogynist",  "homophobe", "racist",  and "Islamaphobe".  And it would mean more coming from the parrot,  because after all, a parrot is a parrot. Therefore, I can conclude that English is probably not it's mother tongue and is probably the parrot's second language (ESL). This means that the degree of difficulty for the parrot would be higher to say those buzzwords.  Therefore, I can deduce that they are smarter than the celebrities because they know the same words.  Not to mention that fact that God made parrots natrually beautiful, so they are capable of looking good on the red carpet without make-up.

   But just because I admire parrots so much does not mean that I think they deserve more social justice than the rest of us.  I believe they should have to follow all the same laws and rules that we all do, as expressed by Roger Miller, with the immortal words, "You can't take a shower in a parakeet cage".
   

The Immaculate Reception

I am writing a short research paper for a history class I am taking at the University of Richmond called "A Moment in Time".  It is being taught by Dan Roberts, who has produced, directed, and hosted the radio show of the same name for the past couple of decades.  It airs daily at 5:45 and 7:45 AM Monday through Friday on NPR.  For all of my FB friends who happen to be football fans, here is a little teaser.

The Tatum/Fuqua deflection that made it possible.

Bumper Stickers and Vanity Plates

Best bumper sticker I have seen in a long time--it read "I hate being bipolar, it's awsome".  Runner-up, Virginia is Pho Lovers.

Atlantic Christian College Basketball Highlights from Yesteryear